I’ve had so much fun with the below Facebook convo, I thought you all could join in the good times.

Yes, that’s sarcasm masking shock at how easily we intelligent, kind humans enjoy shedding our values (whether that freedom is the right to bear arms, or in this case freedom to worship).

“Lady One,” as she’ll be known below, posted the following declaration along with the below Yahoo news link. I share it here with respect—and hope all our comments can be respecful, too, and that we can agree to disagree. We’re all in this together, after all.

Enjoy! ~ Waylon PC Lewis (Lebovit)

Lady One: Dudes, it’s NOT Islamaphobia, it’s extreme dislike and distrust of the most narrow-minded, murderous, sexist, bigoted hate mongers that have ever lived on this Earth!

Lady One Don’t forget, Jon Leibowitz changed his name much for the same reason Bernie Lebovit changed his name…shame and compromise, Mr. Waylon Lebovit.

Waylon Lewis Of course. That’s why I’m surprised to hear you express a lack of sympathy for a group that’s the focus of a lot of generalized dislike, these days.

Lady One I’ve disliked Muslim nutjobs all my life. My dad…took me to the 20th anniversary of Israel Day Parade in 1968. There were two groups holding up ugly, hateful signs, one was the Neo-Nazis and the other group was Muslims who want to see Jews dead. Sympathy? Waylon, you really are in lock-step with the PC crowd!

Waylon Lewis
Why not just like nutjobs generally, whatever their race, creed? Why dislike an entire group? Doesn’t that, aside from being inaccurate and unkind, just discourage moderates within said group, and encourage radicals?

PC is something I’ve never been called by anyone who knows me.

Lady One If not PC, then why are you trying to get me to homogenize and pasteurize what I said? I the immortal words of Horton: “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant”

Waylon Lewis You can respect a people, tradition, way of life without being PC. You can respect a religion and hate nutjobs without homogenizing or pasteurizing—all we have to do is be precise in what we dislike, and what we respect. I think your hubby and VA is rubbing off on your worldview, politics!

Lady Three What a tradition and way of life.

Waylon Lewis My goodness, Lady Three, I’m talking about the Muslim faith—not the terrorists. You having trouble distinguishing between the two?

Lady One: Ugh! Please.

Waylon Lewis: Well, it seems like you do. You’re generalizing about all Muslims, are you not? I’ll be glad to be mistaken.

Lady Two: I guess my question to these people wanting their mosque in lower Manhattan is if it is causing so much discord and ill feelings in people, why not move the damned thing?

Waylon Lewis: That’s a great question. But there’s already a mosque there, it’s been there since before the WTC was built, and it’s been there without incident. So perhaps it’s we who are causing the discord. It’s a community center, with a mosque, started by a guy who was close with the Bushes…it should be the kind of place to strengthen the kind of moderate Islam we all want to see hold sway against radical, violent, bigoted elements.

Lady Two: No, the proposed site used to be a Burlington Coat Factory. The Bushes are gone, so bringing them up is a non point in 2010, really. The Muslim community should be a little more understanding and tolerant of the people in Manhattan who lived through and died as a result of a few misguided people of their faith. No one objects to a mosque, we, overall ARE a tolerant people. 2 blocks from the WTC is a little too “in your face” for most.

Waylon Lewis Not talking about same site, of course, sorry for confusion. Talking about a mosque near Ground Zero, it’s already there, has been for decades without incident. Point of Bushes is that this Muslim gent is not only moderate, but probably con…servative—as far from “terrorist” as one could hope.

As for 2 blocks from Ground Zero, I hear you, but “Muslim people” didn’t do this. Nutjob jerks did this who happened to think they were Muslim, but didn’t get love for God properly. God is love, right!?

And the location consideration is a bit tough…saying “be sensitive, do it elsewhere” sounds good…but mosques have come under fire nationally. Literally. It’s an intolerant time, which goes back to the Yahoo headline dear Lady One posted.

…to be continued.

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789122 Responseshttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.elephantjournal.com%2F2010%2F09%2Fits-not-islamaphobia%2F%22It%27s+not+Islamaphobia.%222010-09-03+01%3A25%3A00elephant+journalhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.elephantjournal.com%2F%3Fp%3D78912 to ““It’s not Islamaphobia.””

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Aron S: It makes me sad too. I spent time in the middle east, and in some pretty rough neighborhoods, people who had been accidentally bombed by US. They are still some of the kindest most sincere people I've ever met. And they still loved America. (though to be fair they hated Bush and his policies, because he completely ignored friendly Muslim nations like Egypt.) I felt much safer there than in say, New York City.

Waylon, god isn't love, god is a made up idea that humans have used to justify cruelty and hate through out history.
I don't respect muslims or members of any made up faith. I think they're all delusional.
I also struggle with the so called "moderate" religious people picking and choosing the lines from the book they say is gods own word. They say the ones the crazies base their actions on aren't the "real" book (bible, torah, quran, whatever) but the fact is that ALL those books say stone people to death, kill the infidels and more awfulness. Some of the great heroes of all three of these religions are mass murderers, warmongers and "haters" and they are all given lots of love from god for their deeds proving only that the men who wrote these books were, in fact, terrorists and crazies, not god, and no good can come from any of it.
I believe the owners of the land can do what they like with it and that America, because of the constitution, MUST let them build it if they choose, but that doesn't mean I have to respect muslims. I don't even respect catholics and I was once one of them…